| July
24, 2003
Garmin Begins Shipping Its GPS-Integrated
iQue™ 3600 PDA
OLATHE, Kan./July 24, 2003/PRNewswire — Garmin International
Inc., a unit of Garmin Ltd. (Nasdaq: GRMN), announced today
that the company’s highly anticipated iQue
3600 — the
first personal digital assistant (PDA) with integrated Global
Positioning System (GPS) technology — began shipping
this week to leading electronics retailers and traditional
Garmin dealers within the United States at a suggested retail
price of $589.
"
We are thrilled with the early response to our iQue 3600
and we’re excited to deliver this full-featured, GPS-enabled
organizer," said Gary Kelley, Garmin’s director
of marketing. "This handheld creates a new utility in
the PDA market by integrating organization and navigation
into a single device and bringing the benefits of GPS location
technology to new and existing PDA users."
"
Garmin’s iQue 3600 is a great addition to the growing
and diverse family of Palm Powered mobile devices," said
Charlie Tritschler, vice president of product marketing,
PalmSource, Inc. "Its world-class GPS technology combined
with handheld functionality demonstrates the flexibility
and innovation achieved through the Palm OS platform."
The iQue 3600 is the first PDA to feature a built-in GPS
antenna and integrated turn-by-turn navigation software.
Using an ARM processor powered by Palm OS® 5, the iQue
3600 combines Garmin’s proprietary Que™ technology
with the unit’s Address Book and Date Book. The integrated
result is that users can look up an address or appointment
on their iQue 3600 and navigate to it using the mapping function,
following turn-by-turn, voice-guided directions to their
destination. Their progress is presented digitally on the
device’s 320x480-pixel, transflective TFT color display.
The iQue 3600 marks the first in a series of planned future
products that will combine Garmin’s expertise in location
technologies with open mobile computing platforms, such as
the Palm OS. Early enthusiasm for the iQue 3600 provides
an indication of additional opportunity in the PDA market
that the company wishes to capture. Based on this market
potential, Garmin is shifting its R&D focus from CDMA
and follow-on GSM handsets to devote more engineering resources
to the development of products based on open mobile computing
platforms, including those enabled with Bluetooth technology
and other wireless capabilities. Garmin will monitor long-term
opportunities in the wireless market and will continue product
enhancements in support international consumer sales of the
NavTalk GSM as well as opportunities in vertical applications
as they arise.
The iQue 3600 earned the prestigious "Best of Innovations" Award
in the Mobile Office category of the Innovations 2003 Design & Engineering
Showcase competition at this year’s International Consumer
Electronics Show. The iQue 3600 won acclaim for its form,
function, value and marketability.
Garmin
International Inc. is a member of the Garmin Ltd. (Nasdaq:
GRMN) group of companies,
which designs and manufactures navigation, communication
and information devices — most of which are enabled
by GPS technology. Garmin is a leader in the general aviation
and consumer GPS markets and its products serve aviation,
marine, outdoor recreation, automotive, wireless and OEM
applications. Garmin Ltd. is incorporated in the Cayman Islands,
and its principal subsidiaries are located in the United
States, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. For more information,
visit Garmin's virtual pressroom at www.garmin.com/pressroom or
contact the Media Relations department at 913-397-8200. GARMIN
and NavTalk are registered trademarks, and iQue and Que are
trademarks of Garmin Ltd. or its subsidiaries.
Notice on forward-looking statements:
This release includes forward-looking statements regarding Garmin Ltd. and
its business. Any statements regarding the company’s future product
introductions, plans and objectives are forward-looking statements. The forward-looking
events and circumstances discussed in this release may not occur and actual
results could differ materially as a result of risk factors affecting Garmin.
Information concerning risk factors that could affect Garmin’s actual
results is contained in the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended
December 28, 2002 filed by Garmin with the Securities and Exchange Commission
(Commission file number 0-31983). A copy of Garmin’s Form 10-K can
be downloaded from www.garmin.com/aboutGarmin/invRelations/finReports.html. |